BHCINNINCS OF NATURAL HISTORY IX AMHRICA; 



By Gkor(;k Brown Gonni*;, 

 President of Ihc /'io/ooira/ Socirly of U'asIii>i(i/(»!. 



Is not science a growth ? Has not science, too, its enibryolo!f\'? And nuist not the 

 net(lectof itseinhrvolo.<<v lead to a niisunderstandinir of the ])i-inciplesof itsevohition 

 and of its existin,^' ori^anix,;ition ? 



- Si'KNCiCR : f/n' (I'onsis of Science. 



ANALYSIS. 



I. Thomas Harriot, the earliest En^li-'^h naturalist in America 357 



II. Harriot's Spanish and French predecessors and contemporaries 363 



HI. Garcilasso de la Vega and the biological lore of the native Americans .... 367 



IV. Anglo-American naturalists of the seventeenth century 371 



V. European explorations in the New World, i6o()-tS(xi 379 



VI. The founders of American natural history 3H4 



VII. The (lel)t which the naturalists of the present owl- to those of the past .... 403 



I. 



Three centtirie.s ap^o the onlj^ Kiish^h .settlement in America wa.s the 

 httle colony of one hundred and eight men which Raleigh had planted 

 five month.s before tipon Roanoke I.sland, in North Carolina. 



The 17th of August, 1885, was the anniversary of one of the mo.st 

 noteworthy events in the history of America, for it marked the three 

 hundredth return of the date when vSir Richard (irenville brought to its 

 .shores this sturdy eompaiiy of pioneers, who, by their sojourn on this 

 side of the Atlantic, prepared the way for the great armies of innnigrants 

 who were to follow. 



It was also the anniversary of an important event in the history of 

 .science, for among the colonists was Thomas Harriot, the first ]'<nglish 

 man of science who crossed the Atlantic. Ilis name is familiar to few 

 .save tho.se who lc)\-e the time-browned pages and quaint narrations of 

 Hakluyt, Purchas, and Pinkerton ; yet Harriot was foremost among the 



■Annual presidential address delivered at the sixth anniversary meeting of the 

 Biological Society of \Va.shington, l"el)ruary 6. 1.SS6, in the lecture room of the 

 ITnited States National INIuseum. 



357 



